Concert Preview: FIDLAR to perform at the Black Cat

Los Angeles skate rock group FIDLAR will return to D.C. on Sept. 28 to showcase their West Coast brashness on Black Cat’s stage.

At first glance, FIDLAR may look like a band trying to make it big. With its media spanning Soundcloud, Spotify, Youtube and a cinephile Instagram, the group has reached out on about every spectrum of social media imaginable. In addition to the band’s online presence, FIDLAR’s genre of punk rock is as repetitive as it is uncreative.

Although FIDLAR may not immediately catch the ears of first time listeners, the band’s punk music becomes highly addictive and exceptional after three listens.

“I kind of think as Punk more of an attitude, with how you do things and carry yourself, then a style of music,” Bass player of FIDLAR, Brandon Schwartzel said when asked to define punk rock.

FIDLAR, an acronym for “Fuck It Dog Life’s A Risk,” released its second album “Too” last month, which has sparked both praise and criticism.

To Schwartzel, the criticism directed toward “Too” is ironic, as some critics have accused the band of selling out due to the cleaner instrumental arrangements on the album.

“You will always have that kid who is like, ‘their early stuff was way more punk,’ but to us, selling out would be doing the same thing again,” Schwartzel said. “We would be selling ourselves short, and that’s not fair to us.”

In comparison to the band’s eponymous debut, “Too” has considerably less fuzzed-out skate rock and leans toward a more polished pop punk. Though it’s a departure from the band’s first album, “Too” creates a unique sound. The album fills in happier upbeat music with lyrics dealing with self loathing and loneliness.

The fuzzy rough sounds that came from the first album were the result of the band recording it in lead singer Zac Carper’s basement, according to Schwartzel. However, in contrast to its first album, the band had the help from a producer to create their latest LP.

“We don’t want to do the same thing again,” Schwartzel said. “You see bands that make the same record ten times in a row, and it's never as good as the first, and that’s fine, we're just not that band.”

FIDLAR will perform at the Black Cat on Sept. 28. Tickets are available online for $17. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.